Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > Well, reading builtin/merge-base.c::handle_fork_point(), I think the > intended behaviour is: > > - die() when input is not well formed (e.g. bad commit object, > ambigous ref name, etc.); there is an error worth reporting in > this case. > > - show one that used to sit at the tip of the ref, if exists, and > signal success with exit status 0; there of course is no error in > this case. > > - if there is no such fork point found, signal failure with exit > status 1; nothing is written to the standard output as there is > no fork point to be shown, and nothing is written to the standard > error. > > I do not think the code considers the last case as an error, i.e. it > is just as natural not to have any fork point, as there is one. > > It might be OK to teach the command to say "no fork point found" to > the standard error under "--verbose" mode in the last case, but > since the command does not take --verbose or --quiet, I have a > feeling that everything is working as designed. I forgot to say that the behaviour above used by the "fork point" mode seems to match the behaviour of the more established normal "merge base" mode. builtin/merge-base.c::show_merge_base() also follows the same "die if the input is faulty, give output and succeed if a merge base is found, otherwise be silent and signal failure with exit code" pattern.
